Make it three divisions won in pool play for Canadian women.
Defending champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes gutted out a second beach volleyball triumph in as many days at the world championships on Monday, defeating Chantal Laboureur and Sarah Schulz of Germany 25-23, 21-19 in Rome.
On Sunday, Toronto’s Sophie Bukovec and Brandie Wilkerson made it six consecutive set victories in Italy en route to their third consecutive win, while fellow Canadians Megan and Nicole McNamara also went 3-0 to top their group.
Toronto tandem Sam Schachter and Daniel Dearing picked up their first victory against two losses earlier on Monday, beating Ghana’s Paul Akan and Samuel Essilfie 21-16, 11-21, 15-9.
Pavan and Humana-Paredes carried the momentum from Monday’s opening-set victory into the second and built a 5-2 advantage but quickly lost the lead. However, they recovered to set up an exciting finish.
After Pavan served out of bounds to give Germany a point and tie the set 17-17, Laboureur followed suit and Canada scored another point to go up 19-17.
But the Germans battled back with a pair of their own before Pavan took over. First, the six-foot-five athlete swatted the ball for a point on a kill and then unleashed a perfectly placed spike.
Laboureur, who had to bend down near the sand, sent the ball to Schulz but was too close to the net and sent her return attempt into the net.
In the first set, Germany was behind early, went on a four-point run to grab a 9-6 lead and kept the momentum for some time. But the tone of the set started to change after Laboureur dropped a shot in front of a diving Humana-Paredes to make it 16-14.
The German player served into the net on the ensuing play and opened the window enough for Canada to make it 16-16 on a Humana-Paredes kill to the open side.
The teams exchanged points as neither side could keep service. Again, Pavan came up big late when her serve was mishandled to put Canada ahead 24-23. Humana-Paredes sealed the victory, spiking the ball to Schulz, who raised her left hand and sending the ball across to her teammate. But Laboureur didn’t react quickly enough and the ball wasn’t returned.
The Germans did a solid job of changing the speed of their shots and placing their shots, keeping Humana-Paredes on the move and earning 15 of their points on opponent error.
The Canadians have struggled the past two days extending leads and finishing off teams while inconsistent serving continues to creep into their game. Pavan and Humana-Paredes outscored Laboureur and Schulz 28-21 on the attack and recorded three, four and 11 points via block, serve and opponent error, respectively.
